Cheerleader Rebellion Defies Ban on Pre-Game Prayers

Lean to the left. Lean to the right. Stand up. Sit down. Fight, fight, fight. Go, Oneida High School cheerleaders!

In an uncommon and inspiring display of courage and integrity by young people, the Tennessee high school’s cheerleaders defied a ban on pre-game prayers during a recent football game — an act that had the crowd in the stadium chanting along and cheering.

The high school recently banned a nearly 80-year tradition of saying a prayer over the PA system before games, after some atheist whined to the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The ACLU apparently was involved as well.

This is the way atheists play their own game: Find a school, civil institution or any public venue in a community with a significant Christian presence, then pitch and moan to your lawyer friends at the FFRF, ACLU or other anti-Christian secular law firm, threaten the aforementioned institution with legal action, then proclaim a victory for separation of church and state when your victims cave.

The increasingly liberal courts have allowed atheists to use the concept of separation of church and state (a phrase that is not in the Constitution) to run over the First Amendment rights of Christians across the United States. The phrase originated in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson explaining that the First Amendment created a “wall of separation” between church and state that was meant to prevent government from interfering in religion or religious expression.

Atheists, with the courts’ help, have twisted this until we now have a “wall” that works to prevent Christians from participating in their government or their communities. Atheists have effectively wielded their legal hammer to force Christians to shut up, to be neither seen nor heard.

Which is why the Cheerleader Rebellion is so inspiring. It’s past high time that Christians stood up and pushed back for the sake not just of themselves but of all Americans who want to be free to live their religious beliefs and not live in a nation where atheism is the officially sanctioned state religion.

Atheists’ offended religious sensibilities cannot be allowed to trump the religious freedom of the rest of America.

At the Oneida High School game, the announcer called for a moment of silence, then cheerleader Asia Canada began loudly reciting the Lord’s Prayer. “He called for the moment of silence and I started off, ‘Our Father who art in heaven’ and everyone joined in,” Asia said on WBIR-TV.

Announcer Kevin Acres said the entire stadium full of people, including the opposing team, joined in. School administrators have decided — for now — that the prayers are allowed because they are student-led and not said over the school’s loudspeaker.

Take that, FFRF.

And I trust no one missed the irony of Americans’ religious freedom being defended by a plucky young lady named Asia Canada.

Acres said he, too, was frustrated by the school’s decision not to have the prayers. He added that most people in the community wanted the prayers and that he feels it is not right for a minority to dictate to everyone else.

He sees the whole situation, including the cheerleaders’ actions, as accomplishing a greater good: “Where you had one person saying a prayer over the PA, now you’ve got hundreds, maybe a thousand people saying it together.”